The Poker House

Good as an independent movie, professional acting, and good story

This is one of the story in the life of Lori Petty, and I never knew how much of a difficult childhood she had. It's basically a depressing and yet well acted and well made movie to some degree about girls struggles. Mainly because of a bad mother and not a very good environment to be growing up in. Now the negative aspect of this movie is that, it seemed to drag in a lot of scenes. In fact some of the scenes actually seemed quite pointless. Basically the plot is about a tough girl who is also smart, but don't always make the right decision having to take care of her sisters as well as overcome her struggles with the environment. The plot seemed all over the place at times and got boring during sometimes as well. This is not a near perfect movie but it isn't as terrible as some people claim it to be. The ending was okay though.

6/10

Story of a little girl, played by Jennifer Lawrence, who lived in "The Poker House", something like a house where they are, pimps, drugs, gambling, that sort of thing. A drama that reflects basically how it was to live there, with her sisters and mother.

I found a good story, besides that is told by the same person who lived it, which makes it much more real, and they are many emotions in this film, which could reflect only living something like that.

For this movie Jennifer Lawrence won an award for an outstanding performance. Thing with which I also agree, because she embody the character with enough personality and gave him a very real touch to it.

Agnes: "I race the sun home in the morning, and the moon up at night. Anything can happen, and anything does. There's just today, and then there's tonight. And tonight is wonderful"

A person's life is made up of many stories, and this is just one story from Lori Petty's life, but it's told with all the style of John Steinbeck. Speaking of style, something which is lacking in so many films today, even great ones, THE POKER HOUSE is done with an amazing amount of it, and the only thing you get more of than style in this movie is the incredible performances and characterizations of Jennifer Lawrence, Sophia Bairley, Chloe Moretz, and Selma Blair, an excellent supporting cast, and a to-die-for script. The final scene of this movie is not an ending, it's a beginning, and it's so powerful I jumped to my feet while watching it. Lori Petty has an incredible grasp of the art of visual storytelling. I can't wait to see what she does next.

It's one day in 1976 Council Bluffs, Iowa. Agnes (Jennifer Lawrence) is a 14 year old living in a dysfunctional house. Her family escaped her abusive preacher father. Her sister Bee hopes to get into a foster home. Her youngest sister Cammie (Chloë Grace Moretz) sleeps at a friend's and spends her day at a bar with drunk Stymie (David Alan Grier). Her mother Sarah (Selma Blair) has fallen into prostitution and drug-abuse. She considers her mother's pimp Duval (Bokeem Woodbine) as her boyfriend. The house is a gathering place for criminals to play poker and known locally as the Poker House.

Director Lori Petty brings her personal story to the screen. It's a harrowing story. It needs an expert to focus the story onto Agnes. It's a bit scattered. It's got some great young future stars and has great potential. JLaw does some big acting. She is always compelling. Petty really needs a professional writer to focus this material more.